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Show THE WAY TO OREGON. 391 is protected by forty miles of snow- sheds, the same of which the British traveler complained " Blarsted long depot; longest I ever saw ! " They continue down the western slope to an elevation of only 4,500 feet above the sea, where there is no danger of a blockade ; and cost a million and a half. No snow can fall sufficient to block the road, as they are built against the cliffs with such a slope as to shed the snow into the deep valleys. At an elevation of 3,000 feet, we were out of the re-gion of snow, and soon after among the brilliant leaves and yellow grass which mark the autumn scenery of the Pacific Coast. Only two light showers have fall-en ; the stimulating air and cloudless sky show that the rainy season has not fairly set in. At Sacramento I find great difference of opinion as to the better route to Oregon, by land or water, by the weariness of stage- coach pounding, or the pains and perils of sea- sickness. In order to give an unbiased opinion, I decided to go by land and return by sea. Through tickets from Sacramento to Portland, by land, can be had for forty- five dol-lars ; by sea, for ten dollars less. The railroad terminus was then at Reading, a hundred and seventy- five miles from Sacramento; thence one must stage it two hundred and eighty miles to the southern ter-minus of the Oregon Railroad. The autumn rains came on in due order, and, as our train moved up the Sacramento River, the summer-dried grass was taking on a velvety brown, with rare patches of faint green. Northward, signs of fertility increased ; and, at Chico, the face of nature was so beautiful, that I halted for a day. Here General John Bidwell has a ranche of some 20,000 acres, one of the finest in California. The plains of the Sacramento have a vary-ing width of from twenty- five to fifty miles, between the foot- hills of BLUE CASON SIERRA NEVADA. |
